ASG, just take a step back
Attention all those involved in the Associated Student Government election: For the love of all that is holy, take a step back.
This isn’t “The West Wing.” This isn’t a Morgan Freeman movie. Hell, this isn’t even a Denzel Washington movie. There are no conspiracies in ASG. There are no “ASG insiders.” No one is rigging campaigns.
Your campaigns consist of taping colorful posters on sidewalks and hoping it doesn’t rain the next day. If for no other reason, you all need to take the process a bit less seriously.
This year, Howard W. Buffet has accused his opposition of attempting to “defame” him. Howie: I don’t know who you are. Fame is a prerequisite for being defamed.
My point is not to bash ASG. There’s nothing wrong with ASG in principle. There are good people in the ASG, trying to do good things. But let’s face it. ASG has limited powers and not too many people on campus could give a hoot about its actions or decisions. Hence last year’s numerous votes for El Testiculo for ASG President.
So when you start accusing others of conspiracy amidst what is little more than an aggrandized run for high school student council, or making other wild accusations because you’re upset that you’re not going to win, you’re being absurd. More importantly, you’re helping to undermine what little respect the student body has left for ASG.
— John McGlothlin
Weinberg junior
Former ASG senator
Proposed bill stifles dissent
Have you ever lamented not being able to participate in McCarthyist raids? If Students for Academic Freedom has its way, fine patriotic students like yourself will be assigned the task of keeping notes of presumed political biases and rooting out campus commies.
College Republicans recently proposed an “Academic Bill of Rights” taken verbatim from the Web site of SAF, the campus spawn of right-wing pundit David Horowitz. Horowitz authored the legislation as an effort to inject rightist ideology into college campuses or, as he prefers to euphemize, “indoctrination centers for the political left.”
While academic freedom is the alleged objective of the bill, Northwestern’s student handbook already guarantees a student’s right to express dissenting opinion in the classroom. Additionally, the handbook also makes clear that a students’ knowledge of material — and not one’s personal beliefs — are the basis for grading.
The proposed bill differs from existing university policy in its call to mandate the instruction of certain viewpoints, regardless of their validity or scholarly reputation. The bill also aims at exterminating courses it deems as promoting a specific viewpoint.
The freedom for open discourse is one that should be celebrated. Establishing ideology quotas or witch-hunting professors does exactly the opposite, sterilizing classroom interaction for sake of political correctness.
We hope that students and ASG senators will investigate for themselves the potentially dangerous implications of this bill.